Funding Opportunities

TOR – Clean Cooking Alliance China Pilot Projects (2015-2017) Evaluation

Background
Today, about 700 million people in China are still primarily dependent on solid fuels (coal and biomass) for cooking and heating, and most of them will remain so in the near future without further intervention. Despite progress in reducing this dependence on solid fuels, including a successful national program in the 1980s and 1990s, challenges remain to accelerate market-based distribution and shift away from a government subsidy-driven model. The Government of China joined the Alliance in 2012 as an Implementing Partner and announced a goal of 40 million households adopting clean stoves by 2020.

To achieve these outcomes, China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) invited the Alliance to collaborate on a three-year pilot program. During the course of this program, the Alliance launched seven pilot projects in Liaoning, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing and Gansu Provinces from 2015 -2017 with a diverse set of market-based interventions. Each pilot location is unique and representative in terms of local fuel availability, climate, income level, and the cooking and heating habits of users. Interventions in these pilot projects are a mix of market-based demand and supply efforts, including awareness building, revised subsidy policy, technology innovation, and improved distribution and marketing strategies. The goal of the interventions was to explore options of non-subsidy driven distribution models and to showcase the outcomes and results to top government leaders for larger-scale support.

These pilot projects offered important insights to the sector and will support the Chinese Government’s planning for a large-scale stoves program and other clean cookstoves initiatives in the future. The Alliance now is seeking a consultant to conduct an evaluation of these pilot intervention results.

Objectives of the Project
These seven pilot projects can be grouped into two categories based on intervention type1:

The consultant should pick two pilot projects from each category (a total of four) to design and develop a single evaluation of the selected interventions and results, with recommendations for future actions. For each of the selected four projects, the evaluation should address the following research questions:

1. Summary of the pilot project and intervention; and
2. What is the current status of the project? Specifically,
   • For the Infrastructure & Marketing projects, are the improvements made to the facilities still operational? Are the project implementors still distributing the products?
   • For the Enterprise Strengthening projects, are the intervention activities still ongoing?
   • Are the households in all four pilot projects still using the products?

The consultant should plan to visit each of the selected pilot enterprises or project sites, including at least 30 households for each project. The Alliance will connect the consultant with relevant companies, local governments, and the national government.

Scope of Work
Task 1: Kick-off Meeting
The consultant is required to participate in an on-line or in-person project kick-off meeting with the Alliance M&E Manager and China Program Manager to go over the work plans and evaluation strategy.

Task 2: Evaluation Design
Under guidance from the Alliance, the consultant will be responsible for designing and implementing the evaluation. An inception report including evaluation strategy, methods and work plans are due for submission to the Alliance by November 8, 2019.

Task 3: Research Phase
The consultant is required to conduct document review and interviews to get initial information from existing Alliance and MoA reports on pilot projects. The consultant will also need to travel to selected pilot projects to collect data and intelligence from households and local partners.

Task 4: Evaluation Report
The consultant is required to complete the final technical report with evaluation conclusions on intervention results as well as recommendations and insights for future and follow up actions by December 15, 2019.

Methodology
The methodology adopted for the evaluation should be identified in proposals and should reflect the research objectives. Methodology will be finalized after consultation with the Alliance in the evaluation design document.

Deliverables, Timeline and Budget
The key deliverables of this project are:

1. The project is expected to kick off by no later of October 21, 2019.
2. Evaluation design and workplan due by November 8, 2019.
3. Final technical report due by December 15, 2019.
4. Final reports including narrative and financial reports due by December 31, 2019.

The project is expected to be completed by December 31, 2019, including submission of all reports and required reporting materials. Proposals should include a detailed outline of the anticipated timelines for completion of the work.

The budget for the evaluation is $50,000 including staff time and travel expenses.

Proposal Evaluation Criteria
The proposals will be evaluated and compared based on the following criteria:

• Significant track record in evaluation work for the rural sector in China including excellent data and survey analysis ability.
• Appropriate methodology and cost-effective budget for proposed work.
• Commitment to project timeframe with no delays and extension.
• Experience and knowledge of the clean cooking sector in China is preferred.
• Good communication skills in working with the Chinese Government.
• Excellent English writing ability and fluent Chinese speaking ability.

Submission and Application Template
Applicants are required to submit the following information by October 13, 2019 at 11:59 pm in EST to china_cookstoves@cleancookingalliance.org:

• Introduction and qualifications of the consultant(s). (Should not exceed one (1) page in length).
• Detailed approach and methodology for the design, implementation, and management of the project. (Should not exceed three (3) pages in length).
• Detailed timeline for all project activities, tasks, milestones, and deliverables for the project within the timeframe indicated above.
• Identification of the team that will execute the project, along with a description of each person’s role. Bios and related summaries of experience and qualifications of proposed project team staff should be included in an Annex.
• Detailed budget that includes all direct and indirect cost estimates for executing the project.

Finalists will be notified by October 18, 2019 and announcement of the selected candidate will be sent to all applicants. Selected consultant must comply with United Nations Foundation and funder compliance requirements.
Questions about TOR
Questions should be sent by email to china_cookstoves@cleancookingalliance.org prior to the submission deadline.

About the Clean Cooking Alliance
The Clean Cooking Alliance works with a global network of partners to build an industry that makes clean cooking accessible to the 3 billion people who live each day without it. No one’s life should be limited by how they cook. Yet, cooking over polluting open fires and inefficient stoves causes widespread health, climate, economic, and environmental impacts. Women and girls are disproportionately affected, spending hours cooking,
inhaling toxic smoke, and collecting fuels like wood and animal dung. The Clean Cooking Alliance is working to mitigate these far-reaching impacts by: driving consumer demand for cleaner-burning stoves and fuels; building a pipeline of investible businesses capable of answering this demand with affordable, high-quality, appropriate products; improving the policy environment to allow the sector to thrive; and increasing investment community participation and global engagement around clean cooking. In alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, the Alliance is working to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030. Learn more about our work at www.CleanCookingAlliance.org.